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'Piffels Pub,' the former Fergies Place in Parma, still draws gyro-loving crowds

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If you're into sharing a meal, check out "The Pounder" gyro sandwich (right) and the Greek Salad at Piffels Pub in Parma. Loaded with gyro meat, it's plenty to satisfy two or three hungry eaters. Or one ginormous appetite.
(Joe Crea, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

Do you have a recommendation for the area's best gyro? Tell us in the comments section below.

PARMA, Ohio -- Plenty of the Cleveland area's popular joints fly under the radar. Many of them have fans who go for the chow, even though the food served wouldn't necessarily draw critical attention.

Which is fine, as far as the regulars are concerned. They're happy to dig in without food snobs looking over their shoulders.

That's the case at Piffels Pub, the former Fergies Place on Ridge Road in Parma. I'd had their gyro sandwiches in the past, at the recommendation of fans and friends who consider it the go-to spot in the southwest suburbs.

So when I drove past recently and saw that the "Piffels" name had replaced Fergies, I thought "Huh? No more gyros?"

Not the case, says Nick Pfeil, who purchased the business around St. Patrick's Day last year and rechristened the spot this fall, in honor of a bar on Brookpark Road his uncle used to run during the 1980s and '90s.

"Someone had told me you'd been asking about our quitting selling gyros," Pfeil said by phone earlier this week, "and then my deejay had heard the same thing and gave me a call -- and then the next day our health inspector came in and said ‘I’d heard the same thing. Why'd you give up on the gyros?’

"But we haven't," Pfeil said, a bit plaintively.

In fact, he'd be a fool to have dropped them. Pfeil says that 75 percent of the bar's total sales are food.

“We go through about 1,000 pounds of gyro meat a week," he says. "My distributor tells me that's one of the biggest deliveries in the area.

“We've kept the same quality, same recipe [a ratio of roughly 80 percent beef and 20 percent lamb, plus seasonings and other ingredients] as the former owners," Pfeil added. “This worked for them for 20 years; I hate to mess around with anything that works that well."

After Pfeil and I talked, I scoped out the restaurant's online menu. It includes their original gyro ($7) as well as a platter ($7.50), the Greek salad (meat optional), and a Pita Pizza (openface, with toppings and melted mozzarella, $5).

We took a drive over to the restaurant to pick up an order placed under another name. We'd phoned in a request for "The Pounder," ($9) a 16-plus-ounce serving of gyro meat piled onto a plump, chewy round of pita and mounded with slices of tomato (unfortunately, the crispy pink winter kind) and shards of strong onions. Plus a drift of tangy, homemade tzatziki sauce.

The very tasty, though very salty, meat was hot and juicy -- enough for at least two (we dished up three) generous servings. I went ahead an ordered extra sauce (75 cents) and pita ($1.50) which yielded only one additional piece. (Note to Pfeil and company: consider adding an extra piece of pita to "the Pounder," even if it calls for a modest surcharge.)

We also tried Piffels Greek Salad ($6.50) which packed a second container with sweet cucumber slices, more of the same tomatoes and onions, plus a lot of kalamata olives, pepperoncini and several nuggets of good quality feta cheese, along with several wedges of fresh pita.

Pfeil says that the gyros are on the spit pretty much throughout the day. Meanwhile, he's considering other casual food options to expand bar's menu beyond chiefly Greek food.

Would I drive across town for Piffels gyros? Probably not. But when in the area and hungry for a quick, casual meal along with a couple of beers, I'd happily stop back. At the very least, Piffels gyros definitely trump most of the fast food options nearby -- and they're a whole lot tastier.

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